Welcome to the ECPR Standing Group on Interest Groups

The ECPR SG on Interest Groups aims to stimulate the political science interest in interest group politics, civil society, social movement organizations and political advocacy. Membership of the SG is open to everyone who is interested in cumulative research on interest group politics. The SG functions largely as a forum and an exchange network for interest group Researchers.

6th ECPR Summer School on Interest Group Politics, 20-28 July 2015

Interest groups and public policy: Mobilization, lobbying strategies and influence

The Summer School on Interest Group Politics is an initiative of the ECPR Standing Group on Interest Groups. The summer schools aim to provide students of political science and public administration sound knowledge about organized interests and lobbying organizations.

The 6th ECPR Summer School on Interest Group Politics at the University of Hamburg focuses on interest groups and their impact on public policy. Through a variety of courses taught by renowned interest scholars from Europe and the US, students will learn about the different stages of the lobbying process involving the mobilization, the strategies and the influence that interest groups exert on public policy.

The summer school combines theoretical as well as methodological courses to provide students with advanced training in the latest theoretical approaches and in cutting-edge methodological techniques applied in the study of interest groups. In addition, the summer school will provide students with an international forum to build an academic network with other junior and senior scholars in interest group research.

Students will in addition have the opportunity to present and discuss their own research project to get feedback from the instructors and the other students. The best paper will be awarded a prize by the convenors of the ECPR Summer School.